The Angels have agreed to terms on a $7,689,525 bonus with No. 2 overall draft pick Tyler Bremner, reports Carlos Collazo of Baseball America. That’s more than $2.5MM under the slot value of that second overall pick. They’ve reallocated that chunk of savings to sign over-slot deals with third-round pick Johnny Slawinski, fifth-round pick CJ Gray and 13th-round pick Xavier Mitchell, per Collazo. Slawinski signed for a $2.4975MM bonus — nearly $1.5MM over slot. Gray’s $1.2475MM bonus clocks in $728K over slot. Mitchell’s $872,500 bonus is akin to third-round money.
Bremner, 21, was a surprise pick at No. 2. The UC Santa Barbara product was widely considered a first-round talent but projected to go later down the board. The Halos tend to lean toward polished, quick-to-the-majors college players with their top picks, however, and Bremner largely fits that bill. Plus, the savings on this pick allowed them to make sizable commitments to high school picks like Slawinski, Gray and Mitchell.
Bremner’s junior season in college ball was sharp. He pitched to a 3.49 ERA, fanned 35.6% of his opponents and walked only 6.1% of the batters he faced. FanGraphs ranked him seventh in this year’s draft class, while Bremner ranked 11th at Baseball America, 16th per The Athletic’s Keith Law and 18th both at MLB.com and at ESPN. He draws praise for a mid-90s heater with good sink and a plus changeup that’s effective against both righties and lefties. The general consensus is that he needs work on his slider or perhaps the incorporation of another new pitch, but he’s viewed as a fairly likely mid-rotation arm with the upside to develop into more than that, depending on the development of a third pitch.
Each of Slawinski, Gray and Mitchell ranked within the top 118 prospects on Baseball America’s Top 500 list and within the top 178 talents at MLB.com’s top 200. All three are prep pitchers with considerable ceilings — Slawinski and Mitchell from the left side. Slawinski had been committed to Texas A&M, while Gray was committed to NC State and Mitchell to Texas.
Pillar, now 36, was able to engineer an incredible zero-to-hero career. The Blue Jays drafted him in the 32nd round of the 2011 draft. But despite that humble beginning, he would not only make it to the big leagues but he would stick around for more than a decade.